Protests have erupted in Greece in response to the rail crash that killed 43 people, with many viewing it as an accident waiting to happen.
Rioters clashed with police outside the Athens headquarters of Hellenic Train, the corporation in charge of maintaining Greece’s railways.
Protests were also organized in Thessaloniki and Larissa, both of which are close to where the accident occurred on Tuesday night.
According to the administration, an independent probe will bring justice.
Following the tragedy, in which a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train, causing the front cars to explode into flames, the country has announced three days of national mourning.
The passenger train’s front coaches were mostly wrecked.
Many of the 350 passengers on board were students in their 20s returning to Thessaloniki after a long weekend celebrating Greek Orthodox Lent.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said “tragic human error” was to blame for the disaster.
A 59-year-old station master in Larissa has been charged with manslaughter by negligence. He has denied any wrongdoing, blaming the crash on a technical fault.
Rail union members believe safety systems were not working properly, with repeated warnings about this over many years.
In protest and mourning, rail workers are planning on striking on Thursday at what they say is official neglect of the railways.
“Pain has turned into anger for the dozens of dead and wounded colleagues and fellow citizens,” the workers’ union said in a statement announcing the strike.
“The disrespect shown over the years by governments to the Greek railways led to the tragic result,” it added in comments cited by Reuters news agency.
Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned over the disaster, saying he would take responsibility for the authorities’ “long-standing failures” to fix a railway system he said was not fit for the 21st Century.
But outside a hospital where bodies of the train crash’s victims were being brought, a banner was hung claiming that any systemic failings would be covered up in the official investigation now under way.
